She was a teacher, not a spy.
High school Spanish teacher Marianne Woolsey is reasonably happy with her life, until Earth Central Command forces her to sign up for a 26 year assignment light-years from Earth. In spite of herself, from the moment she meets her new employer’s infant daughter, she is all in, professionally and personally.
Practiced and deadly, the Sural has ruled Tolar for centuries. When he requests a tutor from Earth for his daughter and heir, Central Command sends him someone much more intriguing than the passive spy he expected. But this human woman clearly has secrets of her own, buried deep in her past, and even an empath like the Sural cannot be entirely sure of her motives.
On Tolar, espionage comes with a death sentence, and Marianne’s growing attraction for her employer might just get her killed. Can she trust this powerful ruler with her heart?
The Marann is the award-winning first book in the Tales of Tolari Space science fiction series. If you like planetary adventure and heart-warming romance, you’ll love Christie Meierz’ tales of the reclusive Tolari.
“A beautifully realized story that proves that politically motivated space opera and tender love stories do not have to be mutually exclusive.” – Kirkus Reviews
“For anyone who enjoys tightly-written, wonderfully imaginative science fiction wrapped with romance, this one is a must!” – InD’Tale Magazine
Winner of the 2013 PRISM Award for Futuristic Romance
Christie’s comments:
The Marann actually started out as a short story about Kyza, the Sural’s daughter. But somehow the adults just took over the story…
When this book was re-released in small press in 2013, the editor pointed to Chapter 2 and said, “Your story starts there.” But there was just enough that readers found interesting in the original Chapter 1 of The Marann that I fleshed it out a bit and added it as an extra in the back of the ebook.